25 YEARS AGO
The Globe and Mail reported that Moscow radio stations played sombre music and lights were seen burning before dawn at the Communist Party Central Committee office building as speculation spread that Soviet President Konstantin Cherenko had died. Similar activities had preceded official announcements of other deaths in the Soviet leadership in the past. Adding to the rumours that the ailing Cherenko was gravely ill or dead was the announcement of the unexpected departure from San Francisco of a high-ranking Soviet delegation two days ahead of schedule. Batting champion Don Mattingly, described a week earlier by Yankee owner George Steinbrenner as "one player I wouldn't mind having as a son," was furious because the wealthy team-owner wouldn't give him a better allowance. Mattingly's contract for one year was renewed at a potential value of $450,000, but the slugger felt shortchanged. "I don't like what happened," said the 23-year-old first baseman. "I'll remember this for a long, long time."
50 YEARS AGO
The Globe and Mail reported that school-bus operations and regulations governing sizes of private cars were tightened in a Highway Traffic Act amendment introduced in the Ontario Legislative Assembly. Major provisions of the submitted amendments included the stipulation that school buses must stop at all railway crossings and that new passenger cars more than 80 inches wide could not be sold or offered for sale after Jan. 1, 1961, unless they were equipped with clearance lights. Four starving and storm-battered Russian soldiers were rescued by a U.S. warship from a small landing craft after drifting for seven weeks and 1,000 miles across the Pacific.
100 YEARS AGO
The Globe reported that in a suit against three makers of moving-picture films for show purposes, the rights of the Edison Company to the exclusive exploitation of the "canned drama" field were again affirmed in a New York court. The decision granted temporary injunctions against the only two New York companies still making films for general use which had failed to obtain the Edison Company's approval before advertising their wares. It brought an end to a warfare over patent rights that had extended through 11 years, and left the Motion Pictures Company, a holding company of Thomas Edison, in supreme control.